CineStill Df96 Developer vs Rodinal with Kodak Tri-X

[@MaxLamdin]

holy shit the first Americans to pronounce Nikon properly!

[@ThePhotoDept]

hahaha so many of my American and English buddies have given me hell for saying it that way!

[@mjones410]

@@ThePhotoDept well I'm Australian and I happy to hear you say Nikon properly ie. Nick On not Nike On :)

[@peterfarr9591]

You are all wrong. It's actually pronounced Knee - kon. Look up the Japanese characters

[@puddlesdamien]

Randomly happened onto one of your videos from the recommendation engine. Ended up binge watching 6 or 8 videos and subbed. Love your style, can't wait to watch more.

[@ThePhotoDept]

hah thats awesome! thanks my dude. welcome!

[@jllanesphoto]

Great video. Will definetly give it a try. Thanks much for your time and help.

[@AleksUsovich]

Fantastic video with some solid photos showing the comparison! I've used 2 bottles of DF96 for about 17 rolls each both with 120 and 35mm and have had mixed results. Tri-X and Arista Edu films worked fantastic with the developer. T-Max was decent when the time for development was doubled. Ilford HP5 and FP4 turned out pink no matter how I developed it even developing it 3 times as long.The pink color faded after leaving the negatives taped to a window for a few days. Ilford Delta was completely unusable with DF96 in my opinion having little sharpness and horrible looking grain. Out of the other BW developers that I have used, I always get what looks like surging or bromide drag (visible lines appearing to come from sprocket holes). The more that I use the developer the more that it occurs. Agitation is 1 turn revolution per second and 4 revolutions per minute. Could be possible that I bought two bad batches or (most likely) exhausted developer or (even more likely) user error.

[@AiricLenz]

I like that you pronounce Nikon like it is said where it originally comes from - Japan :)

[@TheMistermike87]

Going through the images at the end of the video I tried to not look at the developers below. Every time I thought it was one developer, it turned out to be the other lol. I shoot a lot of bnw and it looks great to me. Thanks for the vid!

[@diegogarciamedina6363]

hi, monobath is a process that fixes negatives for archival many years or traditional is the best? thanks

[@zguy95135]

They both came out nice but I like the Rodinal ones more. Btw if you shoot some canned air into your bottle it'll help displace the oxygen since it's heavier and it helps to keep the chemicals from oxidizing as fast.

[@ThePhotoDept]

I think I'm with you there, the Rodinal is just a little closer to where I like it right out of development. I do think that the D96 is close enough that I can make it look practically indistinguishable with a contrast bump.

[@randallstewart175]

A long term review of the Cinestill heater would be helpful. It is a bit more costly than the food prep heaters on which it is based, but it added features helpful in the darkroom to compensate. However, in the photo forums, it is rapidly developing a reputation for problems new out of the box and short term failures, mostly electrical, and with a response from Cinestill which could be be described as "lazy". How about a full review on yours, for better or worse, in about 6 months?

[@AndrewGoodCamera]

Great video. My experiences have been similar. I found that Df96 works excellently well with Tri-x and very similar to what I was getting with HC-110. But I hated the results with T-max. Seems to be the pattern from what others have said also. It might just not work as well with t-grain.

[@ThePhotoDept]

Denae & Andrew apparently if you double the processing time for t-grain films, it should work well. Gonna try on a roll of Acros this week.

[@AndrewGoodCamera]

Oh, interesting. I'd love to hear how it goes.

[@mkshffr4936]

Very interesting, thx. I would be interested to see how it does with Delta 100. Also do they provide instructions on pull processing? It would be nice to be able to run Tri-X at 100.

[@edlewis5101]

Having coffee at 7pm won’t help you sleep!

[@Zapruderfilm1963]

Excellent review and comparison! Subscribed!👍

[@talleyrand9442]

How did you dry them so flat? Seems I always get a strong curl down the width. Hmm

[@ThePhotoDept]

i hang them with a spring clip or a gator clip on the bottom to straighten out the negs while they dry. works incredibly well and doesn't cost anything.

[@AnthonyPond]

Just stumbled onto this video. Interesting test. I wouldn't think a monobath could yield such results. I'm curious as to what dilution you used for your Rodinal soup. I generally dilute at 1+50 with Rodinal for Tri-X. A little less grain than 1+25, which works great for slower films. Also, how are you scanning your negs?

[@thedondeluxe6941]

Any particular reason why you normally use stand development? I also use Rodinal for my b&w films, but I just do it the normal way. I've been wanting to try stand development for a while, though. Any advantages, apart from being more relaxing? Haha.

[@ThePhotoDept]

In my experience, doing a stand development with Rodinal yields pretty darn good results for little to no effort. It also has the added bonus of using less chemistry per development, so you can make your Rodinal last much longer. I have found that if you dont mind added grain, its a great way to set it and forget in a way. I will say that the trick I have learned is that if you do some inversions at the halfway point, the grain is less pronounced and the development is more even overall. Give it a try!

[@thedondeluxe6941]

Thanks! I'll definitely give it try. I don't mind some grain :-) I actually just bought a jug of D96 monobath too. They had it in my local shop, so I thought I might as well give it a go. Looks like it worked well for you, so I'm looking forward to trying it.

[@mjones410]

@@thedondeluxe6941 I've shot two rolls of the same scenes in the same camera and developed one roll in HC110 B and the other in Rodinal 1:100 stand. You get some more highlight and shadow detail with the stand. It's not huge, but it is there. The stand gives a little bit more dynamic range. The downside is your sky's can be a bit wavy with stand development as it's not as even, but for me I still stand all my B&W, including infrared.

[@thedondeluxe6941]

@matt jones That's good to know. More highlight details is always a welcome thing for me, since I like exposing for the very darkest parts of the image. I also work quite a lot with infrared b&w film (with R72 filter), and as I'm sure you know that can result in very harsh contrast and blown out highlights. I'll definitely try the stand method next time. Thanks for the info!

[@mjones410]

@@thedondeluxe6941 yep I use it with Rollei 400s IR and an IR72 filter, it's great. I am on the fence about the agitation at the 30min mark. The 30min agitation increases contrast a little, so good for web, but not as good for dark room printing. Lately I have been using no agitation at 30min.

[@Thejohnventura]

I'm having problems processing 400 HP5 plus and its coming out really dark. Tri-X came out perfect so I don't know what's going on. Help?

[@ThePhotoDept]

are you developing it in the same chemicals and process as tri-x? different films need different processes and chemicals. you should check out the massive dev chart to find the best way to develop hp5: www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

[@Thejohnventura]

The Photo Dept. thanks man! Yeah I didn’t know about the different chemicals each film stock is made of. I was afraid it was my technique and it actually was.

[@ThePhotoDept]

@@Thejohnventura oh yeah, thats why color is actually a little easier, cuz all c-41 film use the same chemicals and processing. That link I pasted in my response has a ton of info on developing film.

[@MrNotSelc]

Most underrated photography channel on KZbin

[@ThePhotoDept]

DAMN this is the nicest compliment ive gotten. I would have to disagree, there are some killer channels out there, like my boy Kyle kzbin.info/door/JQcBYfgescGRJUzU6IMCMwfeatured

[@karlwalden3122]

Thx for this test ! I am curiously tempted to say that there is more sharpness in Rodinal than Df96 on your stills ? Maybe it's a question of scanning or maybe it's only me.

[@tychomagneticanomaly]

Very convincing, I will give it a try for sure, using Tri-X with HC110 right now. Really I like your jacket, wasn't aware that Levis still does the laser thing. And while I don't mind people, including Simon and Garfunkel, calling it naɪkɒn, I'll stick with nɪkɒn too ;))

[@ronasuncion4382]

In what dilution is the Rodinal?

[@ThePhotoDept]

1:100

[@ronasuncion4382]

@@ThePhotoDept Thanks! Great photos by the way!

[@CineStillFilm]

Great comparison! I’m glad I subbed across it. If you change the title to “Df96” more people will be able to find it. Pronounce it however you want. ;-) Potato potato...

[@ThePhotoDept]

Ah thank you!! Thaaaaats embarassing. I'm gonna go ahead and change that now hah.

[@CineStillFilm]

The Photo Dept. No biggie. Glad to help out.

[@johngskewes]

Hi good video. My first experience developing was with DF96 and it worked well enough. I do feel Rodinal and tri-x are pretty perfect together - images are sharp with with good grain. DF96 I think, even in your samples, is not as good. Either way, good show. Hope you are getting some good sleep. Also like rodinal for the single use recipes ...Dev times are always the same. You don’t have to chuck blown developer. Thanks✌️

[@dalehammond1749]

Ask 10 photographers what they think and you'll get 10 or 11 differing opinions. I use it a lot for my casual photo shoots. Since I use mostly vintage cameras I tend to like the df96 look.

[@fezzes428]

lol this is a joke comment. nobody is making new film cameras, all of us are using vintage cameras lol!!!

[@brookerankin4611]

I love how I just used the cinestill developer for the first time today to develop pictures that I took of my w123 and what do you know, I find this video with the preview clip of a w123 lol. Beautiful car. Informative as well thanks.

[@ThePhotoDept]

Oooh I'm jealous, I'd love one of those, beautiful car.

[@MaxLamdin]

the way to not get chemicals everywhere is to agitate with the small agitator rods instead of inverting as the development process is exothermic so warms up slightly and will release gas which builds up and then kind of bubbles out

[@ThePhotoDept]

Hey max, thats a good point, but I used to used the agitator rod and I felt that it didnt get an even enough agitation. I'm still running some trails to compare the two. The rod was definitely cleaner and more convenient.

[@Raychristofer]

Good test bro i was wondering about this comparison.

[@ThePhotoDept]

awesome thanks man. yeah as soon as i picked it up i was thinking what it might look like.

[@skitzhills]

Love how you pronounce Nikon m8. Also great video!

[@ThePhotoDept]

thanks friend!

[@doyoudevelop]

Hats off to pronouncing Nikon correctly. Seriously. Also great video :)

[@matchat86]

I pronounce it Nikon, like you, as I figure that is how the Japanese pronounce it and the company is Japanese. If anyone knows how to pronounce the name it's going to be the people who live in the same country that the company originated.

[@ThePhotoDept]

thats my thinking too!

[@mkshffr4936]

Much like people insisting on calling a Porsche a Porsh. But half a century pronouncing Nikon and Yashica in the western way is hard to reverse. 😏

[@Nearest_Neighbor]

Good luck with the insomnia. I know what you're/were going through.

[@ThePhotoDept]

Thanks man. It’s a daily struggle!

[@thedondeluxe6941]

What?! Nee-kon is the RIGHT way of pronouncing it! Stad your ground, mate! :-)

[@ThePhotoDept]

uh oh! I knew there was a chance I'd spark a debate hahah

[@mkshffr4936]

Wait, is the I pronounced as a short I or a long E?

[@thedondeluxe6941]

@@mkshffr4936 Like the knights who say "ni!", it's pronounced like "knee" but with a shorte "ee".

[@mkshffr4936]

@@thedondeluxe6941 OK, it sounded like he was rhyming it with Nick.

[@thedondeluxe6941]

@@mkshffr4936 Nick-on would be a good way of pronouncing it😄

[@TomChamberlain]

I have this lens too. It is a fabulous lens.

[@ThePhotoDept]

Tom Chamberlain I’m a dummy for not using it more before, it’s so beautiful. I love it.

[@TomChamberlain]

@@ThePhotoDept I recently found mine at my local camera store. It is a ridiculously. It's right at home on my FM2nas well as my Sony A7II. Nice job, keep up the good work.

[@ThePhotoDept]

@@TomChamberlain thank you! have fun with that bad boy. its super long on my fuji but i still really love the look.

[@IainHC1]

Nikon is spelt with an 'i' and not a 'Y'!! Nykon is SOOOOO American!!! You got it right first time my friend :-)

[@sonygoup]

Nice because I only shoot tri x

[@Kusanosuke1]

Cool video! BTW, in Japan, Nikon is pronounced "Nee-kohn" not "Nee-kan". 😉

[@dankspangle]

Nih-kon or Neye-kon... people pronounce things differently in different palaces. That's good, isn't it? A world with no variety, who wants that? As long as people understand you, who cares? Paris or Pareeee, tom-ay-to or tom-ahh-to, herbs or errrbs, d-oh-g or d-awww-g, antidisestablishmentarianism or... er... no that one is prob the same most places.

[@randallstewart175]

I could not clearly tell if he is heating the developer by putting it directly in the beaker of developer solution. If that is what he's doing, its a huge error. These heaters are designed to heat water, and to heat water baths in which bottles of chemicals are placed. The interior parts of the heater which contact the water, particularly the seals, are not designed to deal with the medium to strong base and acid solutions used in photography. Also voids the warranty.

[@ThePhotoDept]

the instructions for the TCS-1000 instruct you to heat the chemicals in their graduated jug. There is even a drawing. while your assumption isnt totally wrong, you arent taking into account that i used the TCS-1000 as advertised and experienced a failure. I have not made a huge error, as you put it.

[@neverknowsbest4994]

you've probably never heard of it

[@ThePhotoDept]

Huh

[@adamb9931]

10s in I’m wondering if this is parody. Insta white border-check. skull cap- check. coffee call out in first 10s-check. sticking with it for the X files nod on the wall ;)

[@adamb9931]

nice vid. would too have expected to see a lot more grain in the rodenal, maybe you’re just a super smooth agitator!

[@ThePhotoDept]

Man comin right out the gate with the judgements! Glad you enjoyed it at least.

[@adamb9931]

@@ThePhotoDept I did, got my a**hole comment out the way quickly and dug in for the quality content

[@photosynthesis69]

4:20 in and you haven’t talked about the title of the video yet idt? I’m trying to watch but I came here for development comparisons lol. Add time stamps in the future.

[@ThePhotoDept]

funny how your account is called "my channel my choice" yet youre telling me how to run mine.

[@ThePhotoDept]

i honestly just dont understand how i do all this work for you, but its not good enough cuz i didnt spoon feed it to you? scrub along the timeline! you can do it.

[@photosynthesis69]

The Photo Dept. it’s a joke. From “my body my choice”. I gave you a helpful tip, to leave time stamps. Honestly you’re expecting a bit much from someone that just stumbled upon your channel from typing in “rodinal developer” in the search bar. Big LOL at the best response you could come up with is to scrub the timeline? Because you put “soooo much work” into making this video. I develop multiple rolls a week with rodinal, it takes about an hour. Hold this L for being soft and expecting everyone to leave you flowery comments.

[@ThePhotoDept]

@@photosynthesis69 great joke. also scrubbing the timeline is what a normal person would do if they wanted to skip through a video to content they wanted. leaving you a timestamp is just telling you exactly where to scrub. youre just being lazy. and i . not expecting anything from you except to be decent, and telling me "add time stamps in the future" is not a helpful hint, its a condescending demand. from where i was sitting, it was an unkind comment from someone who didnt consider what goes into producing a video to provide intelligible comparisons of two developers for your benefit, for free. and telling me to "Hold this L for being soft and expecting everyone to leave you flowery comments" really shows your character and lack of empathy and weird projecting youre doing onto me. i dont want flowery comments. but i also dont want people do be dicks.

[@cerclerouge3679]

i guess you get toxic people in any hobby but it's a real pity to see it in one that should be as chill as photography and development. love your down to earth vibe, keep up the great work and my friendly advice would be to just delete these stupid comments instead of getting dragged down to their level.

[@samuelevinti]

I don't know whatnit is yiu are drinking, but it's not coffee... Your mug should be a good 60% smaller. Random italian

[@AstroSam66]

LOOOOL. I use an Aquarium heater. Even for the C41. For the B/W i use... wait... nothing! Its ridicoulous! And BTW comparing different pictures is just useless.

[@ThePhotoDept]

you know whats useless? this comment.

[@AstroSam66]

@@ThePhotoDept Aha, so comments are useless. Well... As you say. THX.

[@AstroSam66]

@@ThePhotoDept And you should better think about how you compare same fotos, to get better and comparabel results. What about this? Just think about it.

[@ThePhotoDept]

@@AstroSam66 no, you made a weird statement and didnt offer anything. Comparing different pictures is NOT useless. you just fail to see the usefulness.

[@ThePhotoDept]

@@AstroSam66 i have thought about it, and ive rejected it, because it would be boring. if you cant tell the differences between two similar but different photos, than i cant help you. no matter what i do, there will always be people who complain or criticize. you either like it or dont. move along if you dont.